Live coverage: NASA, SpaceX to launch next crewed mission to the International Space Station

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, named Grace, sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will launch NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now SpaceX and NASA are preparing to send the next crew of four to the International Space Station as soon as Thursday morning, weather permitting. The mission, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13, is led by NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who will become the first agency astronaut to fly twice onboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. She along with NASA Astronaut Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, will fly onboard Dragon Grace to the ISS for a six-month expedition. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 11:10 a.m. EDT (1510 UTC). The rocket will fly on a north-easterly trajectory upon leaving the pad. Docking is scheduled to occur about eight hours after launch, the shortest transit time ever for a Dragon spacecraft. Spaceflight Now will have live coverage about four hours prior to liftoff. The 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 55 percent chance for acceptable weather at launch. Meteorologists are watching for the potential interference from clouds and rain at the pad. “Over the next 24 hours, a weak low-level disturbance sliding along the south side of the high into the Gulf will bring breezy onshore flow that will continue into the primary launch window late Thursday morning,” launch weather officers wrote on Wednesday. “Models still suggest the continued threat for onshore moving Atlantic showers along the coast, with the exact timing and locations of this activity the main forecast challenge.” SpaceX will launch the mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster with the tail number B1101. This will be its third flight after previously launching 29 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on the Starlink 6-88 mission and Dragon Freedom on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12. Less than eight minutes after liftoff, B1101 will return to Cape Canaveral and target a touchdown at Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40). If all goes well, this will be the seventh landing at LZ-40 and the 664th Falcon booster landing to date. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, named Grace, sits atop a Falcon 9 rocket at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. It will launch NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now Who’s onboard? The Crew-13 mission is the second trip to space for Commander Jessica Watkins who previously served as a mission specialist on the Crew-4 mission, which flew in 2022. Watkins, a geologist and avid athlete, spent her time in between missions working as a branch chief within the Astronaut Office and later, did some work in support of the crewed rovers and spacesuits needed for future Moon-bound missions within the Artemis Program. “I certainly would ideally like to be a servant leader. I think that is something that I have learned through my experiences, but also my interactions with leaders that I look up to and that I want to emulate,” Watkins said. “And that has come in the form of coaches, of mentors, of teachers, and of my crewmates and classmates as well here at NASA.” The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission arrived onboard T-38 jets at the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. Left to right: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, Roscomos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, and NASA astronaut Luke Delaney. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now At her side in the pilot’s seat is a former test pilot Luke Delaney. Before being selected as a member of the 2021 astronaut class, he worked as a research pilot and aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. Delaney grew up in Central Florida and said watching the space shuttle launches was a